Mighty Max

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For the Mitsubishi pickup truck, see Mitsubishi Mighty Max.

Mighty Max was an animated action/sci-fi/horror series which aired from 1993 to 1994 to promote the British Mighty Max toys, an offshoot of the Polly Pocket line. It ran for two seasons; with a total of 40 episodes airing during the show's run. It starred the voice talents of Rob Paulsen as Max, Richard Moll as Norman, Tony Jay as Virgil, and Tim Curry as Skullmaster.

The storyline follows Max, a young boy who receives a package in the mail which contains a small statue of a fowl, along with Egyptian heiroglyphs. Translating the markings, reveals a message which reads: "You have been chosen to be the cap-bearer. Go to the mini-mart and wait for a sign, Mighty Max." Shocked by the message, Max drops the statue, shattering it and revealing a red baseball cap inside. Upon arriving at the minimart, he is chased by a lava-monster sent by Skullmaster; the series antagonist. As he races away, the cap Max wears activates a vortex which transports him from what is presumed to be the United States, to the Mongolian desert instantly. He is told by Virgil (who refers to Max as "the mighty one"), a Lemurian whose appearance is that of a talking, humanoid fowl (frequently referred to by Max and other humans as a chicken, much to Virgil's annoyance), and that Max's reception of the cap was prophesised circa 3,000 BC. Max, Virgil, and Norman, a sword-wielding Viking, travel together around the world, defending the Earth against the minions of the evil Skullmaster (responsible for the downfall of both the Lemurians and the people of Atlantis), as well as fighting a variety of supernatural monsters on the side. The show's violence and descriptions of violent acts were considered graphic by some viewers (many episodes began with a prologue of a person being killed by the episode's menace), especially because its target audience was children.

The finale episode featured Max, Norman, and Virgil in a battle against Skullmaster and their previously defeated foes with both Norman and Virgil dying, leaving Max as the only one to defeat Skullmaster who is about to gain ultimate power. Some fans have criticized the final episode's conclusion for "looping" the end of the series into the beginning. Regardless, fans of the show to this day are vocal in their requests for the entire series to be released on DVD.

A patent was taken by Film Roman for a Mighty Max animated film in 1995, but such a film was never created. The reasons for this are unclear, but the television show had retained low popularity and the toys were also losing ground. However, the show generated other merchandise such as a comic book, board game, and several video games.

The merchandising was far more popular than the show itself. Mighty Max toys were sold as playsets of varying sizes with very small (usually non-articulated) figurines inside. Each playset contained a Mighty Max figure as well as one or more villains and sometimes Virgil, Norman, or both. Any Mighty Max collector would quickly accumulate hundreds of different copies of Max in various poses.

There were a small series of larger more expensive playsets with various mechanical and electronic features such as opening jaws (on an island playset shaped as a dragon's head) and lights. In 1995, due to the popularity of the playsets at the time, the McDonald's Happy Meal offered a toy playset featuring Mighty Max. Also, Mighty Max was turned into a video game for the SNES and Sega Genesis and a handheld game for Tiger Electronics and Systema.

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